


echo in the halls

by surrenderer



Series: kylux positivity week 2.0 [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Established Relationship, Hospitals, Injury, Injury Recovery, Kylux Positivity Week, Kylux Positivity Week 2020, M/M, Reincarnation, Soft Kylux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrenderer/pseuds/surrenderer
Summary: Ben is in the hospital; Hux has a strange dream at his bedside.For Kylux Positivity Week 2.0, Day 8: Favorite Trope
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: kylux positivity week 2.0 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807006
Comments: 12
Kudos: 76
Collections: Kylux Positivity Week 2.0





	echo in the halls

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a late entry for [KPW 2.0](https://twitter.com/kyluxpositivity).
> 
> I chose to do reincarnation tropes for this final day of KPW, because I love them so much. This is the same universe as a previous work of mine, ["come home to my heart,"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23350660) but a few years in the future. Modern-day Ben and Hux have happily stayed together, and their previous life together is but a soft and hazy dream. Supposedly.
> 
> Mild warnings for mentions of motorcycle-related injuries and mentions of surgery. All of it happens off-screen, because this needed to be as light and fluffy as possible.
> 
> Thank you, [sternfleck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sternfleck), for encouragement and hand-holding when I wasn't sure if I wanted to return to this universe at all.
> 
> The title is from ["Halls"](https://open.spotify.com/track/6CSBUrRowq1KHEQ5mQXI4L?si=zfim3L3VSaOcUpBFK_ZOxg) by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.

The intensive care unit is on the sixth floor of this twelve-story hospital. Surgical recovery is on the fifth floor.

Hux takes the lift to the fifth floor in a daze. Ben’s room is on the far end of the wing, down the hallway and two left turns, past the nurses’ bay, and then a right turn.

He’s been pacing a hole in the visitors’ room, clutching the bag of belongings the nurses gave him, and then pacing another hole in the ground-floor lobby when other people in the visitors’ room started staring at him.

But finally, _finally_ , he’s allowed to see Ben—he only managed a hurried text to Rey, to let her know that Ben’s out of surgery, that he’ll be fine, that she can come visit later, before he was walking on autopilot, spurred only by the desire to see Ben for himself.

A nurse gives him directions when he gets turned around, but Hux lingers in the doorway as he takes in the sight and tells himself that it’s going to be okay.

“Darling,” he breathes as he finally enters the room and sits down in the chair next to Ben’s bedside. It’s supposed to look comfortable, but it really isn’t, despite the padded upholstery.

There are small, shallow cuts on Ben’s face and hands and his right leg is wrapped up tightly from ankle to mid-thigh to prevent him from moving it too much, but he’s sleeping peacefully for now. The antibiotic creams on his cuts shine faintly in the harsh lighting and throw them into sharp relief, but Hux is most concerned about the bandage strip stretched down the length of Ben’s face, from forehead to neck, straight across his eye.

That’s it, he’s never letting Ben on a motorcycle again. Hell, Ben will be lucky if Hux doesn’t sell the sleek black bike off to the scrapyard the first chance he gets.

The machines and monitors that they have him hooked up to are too complicated to figure out at first glance, but Hux watches the EKG monitor for a few minutes before he props himself up on the low bed rail with a drained sigh. Ben might wake up soon, in minutes or hours, but he’s strung tight on a wire, has been ever since he got the call from emergency services just as he was leaving the office for the day. It’s starting to wear on him.

But Ben is alive. That’s all that matters. Hux can go without sleep, without food, as long as he knows Ben’s okay and can hold his hand.

He closes his eyes, and dreams.

* * *

_“How am I supposed to deliver you to Snoke in this state?” he asks angrily from one side of the room while he watches Ren dress. His movements are slow and sluggish, pain from his bowcaster wound clearly slowing him down. Even time in a bacta tank can only do so much when Ren was only in there for a few hours._

_“Pain is good for my training. It allows me to channel the Dark,” Ren intones, although he can’t hide the way he tenses from the additional pressure on his ribs as he pulls the zipper up on his quilted tunic. His cloak and robes were damaged beyond repair on Starkiller, but he still presents an intimidating picture in a modified version of the First Order uniform._

_Hux never wants to hear about the kriffing Force again, not after Ren’s increasingly frantic missions to find Skywalker, not after the disaster of Starkiller yesterday. He can’t believe it was only yesterday. “These wounds would get you killed in battle,” he hisses, gesturing at Ren to sit down on the bed before he crumples to the floor. He certainly looks terrible enough now that it’s not an unfounded fear, and he doesn’t want to deal with having to lift an unconscious Ren onto the bed with no assistance. “You need to rest, you need to stay in the damned sickbay, not go running around chasing this girl who cut you down only_ yesterday _—"_

_“I didn’t think you’d care this much,” Ren says, but he sits down anyway. The bacta patches on his cheek are stark on his pale skin; when they’re removed, the scar will bisect his face, from his forehead to his neck in a gash of angry red. How he didn’t succumb to his death while awaiting rescue, between the cut on his face, the blaster wound on his side, and stars know what else, Hux will never understand, but the thought of Ren’s scream when the troopers lifted him onto the stretcher will stay with him for a very long time._

_He can’t hold back from touching Ren any longer, not in the face of that memory. His voice is remarkably steady when he speaks again, as he slides a fingertip under Ren’s chin to make him look up at him. Ren’s gaze is still hazy from the sedatives the medbay pumped into him before he went into the bacta tank, but there’s no mistaking the adoration in his eyes, just from a simple touch. “If you fall, then all we’ve planned for will be a pointless exercise at best, treason at worst.” He pauses, considering all the different phrases on the tip of his tongue before he continues. “I would throw myself out the nearest airlock before I allowed that to happen.”_

* * *

Hux has no idea how long he’s been dozing off for, but when Ben starts to stir, he also sits up, shoving his hand through his hair as he looks around. The intermittent beeping of the monitor is reassuring in its own way, grounding him in the present, but when he squeezes Ben’s hand gently, Ben responds, and only then can Hux breathe freely again.

Ben is here. He’s fine. He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to be fine.

“Hi,” Ben mumbles, although his eyes are still closed. “Water?”

Hux has to let go of his hand and stand up, which seems intolerable at the moment, but he still does it so he can pour a small glass from the pitcher. There’s even a straw he can put in there. Convenient. “Slowly,” he reminds Ben as he holds the cup up to his mouth, who only takes two sips before he’s done.

“How bad do I look?” Ben asks, finally cracking his one visible eye open. He’s so pale and he honestly looks terrible, but Hux doesn’t want to tell him that. He’s going to be out of it for a little while longer, thanks to the post-op medications they have him on. “It can’t be good, since you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Hux manages a small smile, even if he’s sure Ben is telling the truth about his appearance. It’s late in the evening now, and the sun was still shining bright when he’d rushed to the hospital. “Well, I’m afraid you won’t be able to teach your classes at Rey’s gym for a while,” he says softly, although he thinks it’s a small price to pay for Ben still being alive and here with him.

Ben pouts again. “More time to paint, I guess. And to be at home with you.”

Hux can’t help laughing. “That’s one way to look on the bright side.” He leans down to kiss Ben’s forehead, then brushes his lips gently against the edge of the bandage. The nurses won’t remove it for a while yet, but Hux already knows what it’ll look like when they do. “This will scar,” he adds quietly, sitting back down in the chair. “The surgeon said you have to be careful with the stitches. And your leg. They had to put pins in it to stabilize the bones while you heal. You’ll have lots of physical therapy to go through after they’re removed.”

Ben groans, but it sounds more whiny than pained, so Hux doesn’t call the nursing staff in a fit of panic. Yet. “I’ll take some time off work,” he adds. “Or maybe I’ll work from home for a while. Someone has to make sure Millie stays out of your way while you’re in the cast.”

He expects Ben to make a face at the thought of being coddled for weeks, but Ben turns to look at him instead with the softest fucking look in his visible eye, adoration shining through clear and strong. It’s so reminiscent of Hux’s odd dream that he touches Ben’s face again, sweeping his thumb along his cheekbone to remind himself that _this_ is the here and now. It’s not quite the same, but Ben’s skin is warm and it soothes the ache in his heart.

“I love you,” Ben says dreamily as he turns his head to kiss Hux’s palm. There’s no reason for it, but Hux swallows hard against the lump in his throat.

“I know,” he says quietly. Ben’s eyelids are drooping a little, likely because of the lingering anesthesia and painkillers they’ve got pumping through him. Hux drops his hand from Ben’s face, but Ben turns his hand up so they can tangle their fingers together. “Get some more rest, I’ll be right here.”

He settles back against the chair, but this time, he doesn’t have to let go.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find all my KPW work [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807006) and I highly encourage everyone to check out everyone else's excellent work in the [AO3 collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/KyluxPositivityWeek2) and on the [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/kyluxpositivity)! Honored to have been in your company, you guys.
> 
> I'm available on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/parttimewonders) and [Tumblr](https://part-timewonders.tumblr.com/) for flailing chats and enthusiastic RTs.


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